Smart Specialization in Australia

Between Policy Mobility and Regional Experimentalism

Bibliographic Data

ID4893786
AuthorsCaroline Veldhuizen (Centre for Future Enterprise Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Queensland 4000 Australia), Lars Coenen (0000-0002-5671-3988, Mohn Centre for Innovation and Regional Development Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Bergen 5063 Norway)
Year2022
Volume98
Issue3
Pages228-249
Publication date2022-05-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomic Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0095 • E-ISSN: 1944-8287
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00130095.2022.2032637
OpenAlexW4229365313
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited80

This article describes and analyzes the transfer of smart specialization (S3) from Europe, where it originated, to Gippsland, Australia. It identifies factors that are likely to enhance and, on the other hand, diminish the contribution of S3 to development in this region, and, more generally, to peripheral regions around the world. The policy mobility literature provides the analytical framework. It is used to explore how the validity of assumptions that underlie the efficacy of S3, in a destination site, and the institutional and political factors that must be accounted for through adaptation and reflexive policy learning, impact on the viability of policy transfer. This discussion demonstrates the links between geography, and entrepreneurship and innovation, and the challenges of linking the originally more or less homogenous framework to one concerned with development in heterogenous regions. An action research, constructivist approach is adopted. It yields fine-grained ethnographic data that reflects the importance, for effective evaluation of such transfer, of conceiving of a region as a relational space, where social interaction and connectivity drive and define the nature of change. The concomitant focus on process reveals that the intertemporal interchange between the means and ends of policy makers, must be carefully observed before proceeding to ex post evaluation of outcomes. Consequently, the article adds to the theoretical understanding of the complex processes involved in transferring regional policy approaches across spatial contexts. It provides valuable insights relevant to economic geographers, scholars, and practitioners concerned with regional development and innovation policy, and those exploring concepts and ideas associated with the policy mobility literature

Economic geography · Economics · Entrepreneurship · Epistemology · Experimentalism · Policy transfer · Political science · Politics · Process (computing) · Reflexivity · Regional Policy · Regional science · Social science · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Computer Science · Regional Development and Policy · Regional resilience and development · Rural development and sustainability

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